this is "world news." tonight, the doctor speaks. what michael jackson's doctor told police soon after the pop star's death. his words heard today for the first time. cancer controversy. the test millions of men rely on to detect prostate cancer, under fire. is the risk really bigger than the reward? dr. besser breaks it down. saying good-bye. what steve jobs decided to do with his final days. and the hand-written love note to his wife. and our "person of the week." what steve martin accomplished that will inspire everyone to take a chance on what you truly love. the mountain he climbed this week, and it's not what you think. >> we won, we won, we won!

good evening. we begin tonight with american health and an earthquake today in the debate over men and prostate cancer. and that simple blood test called a psa. 20 million men use it to find out if they show a sign of risk, yet today, a government task force is saying healthy men should skip that test, arguing that the treatment that often follows the test may not be worth the consequences. all this amid a fire storm of response, and here's abc's sharyn alfonsi. >> reporter: the psa is just a simple blood test. but the government task force suggests the test for too many men leads to more harm than good. here's the argument. a man takes the test and gets a positive result. further testing follows, showing cancer cells in his prostate. more often than not, surgery is recommended, or radiation, or both. but the man's cancer could very

well have been harmless. greater danger comes from the possible complications of treatment, impotence, incontinence and death after surgery. even a man who developed the test is now calling its widespread use a public health disaster. but try telling that to william. just today, the 61-year-old found out he has prostate cancer. >> and i know i'f i didn't have this test, i would not have found it. >> reporter: this is his doctor, and chairman's of nyu's your rolg department. he says the task force is ignoring the fact there's been a 40% reduction in prostate cancer death since psa testing has been in place. >> so say we shouldn't get psa, that takes us back to prostate cancer, literally, being a death sentence. >> reporter: and while the government panel points to statistics as a reason for healthy men to skip it, william

points to his family as a reason he took it anyway. >> i have a wife and two lovely boys, 15 and 16 and i plan to be around for a long time with them, so i'm happy to have the ability to treat this cancer early. >> reporter: sharyn alfonsi, abc news, new york. >> joined here now by our health and medical editor dr. richard besser. okay, rich. this is the sort of thing that drives people crazy, because it's so confusing. where do you start? >> reporter: here's my advice. don't have this test done until you understand what may follow after that. what all the risks and benefits are. it's your body. and so have your doctor walk you through it. if i have a high result, what may come from that, what would we do? once you have that information, you can make that decision, because in the end, it's a personal decision every man needs to make. i reviewed the evidence for me and decided not to have the test -- >> because you don't have risk factors in your family?

>> reporter: i don't. and i think within the next decade there's going to be a better test. >> run through risk factors. >> reporter: the biggest one is age. the older you are. the african-americans are at greater risk, and if you have a parent, a brother, an uncle. >> so, you're not saying everybody should not have it, you are saying, first, talk it, understand it what it does and doesn't do. >> reporter: this is one of those where one size does not fit all. >> okay, dr. besser, thank you. and now, the important jobs report out today, which was better than expected. 103,000 jobs added last month. the unemployment rate held steady at 9.1%. but the crisis continues and the open protests against wall street and the big banks have been spreading, from lower manhattan to more than 50 cities tonight. but people keep asking, exactly what do these protesters want? abc's cecilia vega has been on the scene. >> reporter: we set out across the country to ask people

exactly what they want to tell wall street. what burns you about wall street? >> they making all this money and ain't nobody else making no money. >> reporter: from chicago to dallas to los angeles to miami, people want to know, where is the accountability? >> doesn't seem to be a lot of care and concern for the little guy. >> up in wall street, they all crooks. they money hungry, they don't care about the american people. >> tell wall street that i think that they're rich enough and their bonuses are high enough. and it's time to start giving back to america. >> reporter: three weeks after the occupy wall street demonstrations began, the protesters are still determined to be heard. that frustration pushed molly katchpole to take matters into her own hands. she organized a grass roots campaign against bank of america's $5 dbt card fee, walked right into a bank branch and delivered more than 153,000

signatures in opposition and then canceled her account. >> $5 might not seem like a lot of money to the people who made the decision, but to thousands of people right now, an extra $60 a year to a company that they just bailed out with their own tax money is not okay. >> reporter: well, as you can see, a lot of people are fed up with corp rate america right now. one man we heard from today said, it's time for wall street to start giving back to the little guy. diane? >> cecilia vega reporting again tonight. have a great weekend. good to see you. and it was ten years ago today, just after the 9/11 attacks, that the united states went to war in afghanistan. tonight, the death toll, more than 1,700 american troops killed. almost 14,000 wounded. near wli 100,000 men and women still there. abc's martha raddatz has been to that region dozens of times, as you know, and tonight, she brings us the story of beauty, difficult choices and answering the call. >> reporter: they share stories

about their children like any other groups of moms. >> it was a lot of fun. >> reporter: but the challenges these mothers face, the sacrifices they make, are unlike any others. they have all served the country for nearly the entire decade we have been at war. what's the hardest part for you? >> there are those times when we're talking, she says, "you know, mom, i really wish you were here." you know, kiddo, i want to be there, too. i really do. >> there have been many nights of tears, of crying, of missing him, but it comes with the job. >> reporter: and that is the attitude you see among these mothers. pride in what they do and pride that their children understand how important it is. >> i get letters and stuff like that from the school saying, she thinks you're a hero, she looks up to you. >> reporter: there is, of course, one more thing that sets these women apart.

the possibility that they won't come home. do you worry about that? >> i try not to. my first deployment, i was a little obsessed with it. i was just scared because she was so little, she would forget. i can't live like that. >> reporter: for all the fears, the sacrifice, all of these women say it is worth it when they step off the plane. >> the hugs and kisses and being able to hold them is pretty amazing. >> reporter: martha raddatz, abc news, eastern afghanistan. >> safe homecoming to all. and back here at home, in california, today was the day we first heard dr. conrad murray tell what he says happened the night michael jackson died, saying jackson begged and pleaded for the drug propofol, the drug that killed him. the doctor's voice filled that

california courtroom, tape recorded by police 48 hours after jackson's death. abc's jim avila covering the trial, brings us the drama on those tapes tonight. >> reporter: two days after michael jackson died and dr. conrad murray is seen walking out of ucla medical center on hospital surveillance tapes, the doctor agrees, accompanied by his attorneys, to meet with police at this marina del rey, california, luxury hotel. a two and a half hour interview, played in open court for the first time today. >> generally speaking, he was not a person that well. >> reporter: dr. murray says jackson had the veins of an old man, making it difficult for the doctor to administer ivs. still, he gave jackson propofol, which his patient called milk because of its white color, on a nightly basis for 30 days straight, up until three days before his death. >> the first time that milk was

used on him, was it your idea or was it his idea? >> his. >> reporter: murray tells police he was trying to wean michael off propofol, and had not given it to him for three nights. but on june 25th, after a tough rehearsal, jackson, he says, begged him for it. >> and that's when he said, i'd like to have some milk. >> milk? and about what time was this? >> he said, please, please give it to me. >> reporter: police build a timeline of that fatal night. 1:00 a.m., jackson gets home from rehearsals, showers and changes. dr. murray gives jackson a rub down with bleaching cream for his skin condition. by 2:00 a.m., jackson cannot sleep. at 3:00 am.m., a different sedative. at 4:30, a repeat dose of his first sedative. sun rise and jackson is still not asleep.

so, at 7:30, a repeat dose of the second sedative. by 10:30 that morning, nine hours without sleep, a desperate michael jackson is asking for his old friend, propofol. and dr. murray says that he tried every precaution possible at his disposal, from oxygen and also a pulse meter. he says that he had no intention of hurting michael jackson, quote, i mean, i love mr. jackson. he was my friend, he was a single parent, i wanted to give him the best chance. diane, we'll have more on the tape on tuesday after the holiday. >> more from the trial. thank you so much, jim avila reporting. and still ahead on "world news," steve jobs. what does a man who had so much want in the final weeks of his life? his inner circle opens up. and 29 million suffer from crippling migraines. what if the push of a button could ease the pain? hey buddy, wattaya lookin' a-oooh.

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details not being released, in keeping with the privacy he valued so much in life. but we have new information about his decisions in the final weeks of his life, and what was on his mind, how he said good-bye and the note he gave his wife. here's abc's neal karlinsky. >> reporter: in the final months of steve job's life, he was dedicated to one last project, so important that even his finest engineers at apple couldn't help. it was an anniversary present for his wife. >> he'd made her a special hand-made box and wrote a hand-written love note and talked about how "we've had good times and we've had hard times, but we've never had bad times." and the love between them was so palpable and so beautiful. >> reporter: and as jobs grew weaker and moved to a downstairs bedroom, often curled up under a blanket in pain, it was his wife laurene who acted as gatekeeper, protecting his privacy. the man who changed the world wanted to spend his precious time saying good-bye to those closest to him. his friend and doctor

dean ornish among them. >> one of the things we talked about the last time we had lunch together was how happy he was that his son reid, who he was so proud of and so close with, had decided to go to stanford, so he could see him just about every weekend. it was the high point of his week. >> reporter: stanford is also where he met his wife of 20 years. in her own time there, laurene powell jobs founded a natural foods company as well as a program that connects disadvantaged students with mentors. she will now oversee a roughly $7 billion fortune. money that friends say was never jobs' biggest motivation. >> i asked him what it was like to be a parent and he said, "dean, it's 10,000 times cooler than anything i've ever done." and then he thought about it a little more and said, "that's probably an underestimation." >> reporter: in the end, it wasn't the stage or the products or the next big thing, there was simply a husband and a father. steve jobs died surrounded by family. neil karlinsky, abc news, cupertino, california. and coming up, what if you

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>> reporter: 13 years ago, kelly amspacher woke up with a massive headache that sent her to the e.r. >> i thought i was going to die. throbbing feeling like spears are coming through my eyes. >> reporter: and for 4,750 days, it has never gone away. kelly became one of the 22 million american women who suffer from migranes. >> i need to leave my job. >> reporter: she pleaded daily with her doctors for help and was on a massive cocktail of drugs. >> 44 medications. >> reporter: 44 medications. and then of them worked? >> no. >> reporter: at her wits end, kelly found her way to the country's top headache specialists, dr. stephen silberstein. >> we get the worst of the worst mere here. their life is almost a continuous migraine hell. >> reporter: he offered an exciting ray of hope in a new study, using this tiny, spaghetti-like wire. called a neurostimulator, it acts like a pacemaker. it was implanted inside kelly's body, below the hip. two wires were then threaded up her spine to the nerves at the base of her neck. >> that's where they come

together. >> reporter: whenever the migraine hits, she uses a remote control to send tiny electrical impulses to interrupt the pain signals. >> when i woke up from the anesthesia, i noticed i didn't have any pain at all. >> reporter: immediately? >> immediately. >> reporter: today, kelly's headaches are fewer and milder. now she's doing what she couldn't before. like watching her daughter's field hockey game. >> it has freed me immensely. it has given me my life back. >> reporter: the stimulator is widely used in europe but it is still being tested here, as the fda has not given it the go ahead. >> but safe so far in europe. >> reporter: so far so good. >> all right, frontier medicine for sure. thanks so much, deborah roberts reporting any. and coming up, steve martin tack tackling something so difficult, he's our "person of the week."

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and finally tonight, our "person of the week." recently, steve martin and a group of awesomely talented guys, scaled a kind of musical mt. everest. that is, if you like banjo and bluegrass, as i do. what mark twain called the genuine glory-beaming music. then you'll appreciate how steve martin shows everyone what can happen in life when you concentrate on something really difficult, but something you love. everything he created was always original and a kind of cadillac of comedy. ♪ how'd you get so funky >> reporter: looking easy. anything but. >> excuse me. >> reporter: even the dopiest things on "saturday night live" were a complex choreography of perfection, of words, arms, legs, bending us over into laughter. no wonder we never paid much

attention to that musical instrument. >> i played it a little bit on stage when i was a standup comedian and the reason i played it on stage is because my act was so crazy, i thought, it's probably good to show the audience i can do something that looks hard. because this act looks like i'm just making it up and i really wasn't. i worked very hard on it. >> reporter: he was a little kid in the '50s and '60s, growing up in orange county, california, working at disney land when he first heard that sound that seemed an invitation to the impossible. >> in my ear was just transfixed by the sound of the banjo. and i got one, as soon as i could. >> reporter: famous group, the dill larlds, played on the "andy griffith show" and on the radio the master, with some help from a high school friend, steve martin taught himself to play the songs of earl scruggs. >> i would get records by earl

scruggs, 33 rpm. and you could slow them down to 16 and a quarter, i think it was, and i could tune my banjo down and i would pick out the songs note by note and learn how to play them that way. >> reporter: but outsiders say, you have to be crazy to think you can ever get the respect of the kings of bluegrass. whose lives are dedicated to one hand, 600 notes a minute, 11 notes a second. ♪ even your mom said you were nuts ♪ >> reporter: but martin gathered up a band, writing the songs himself. only the banjo, he says, can arc all the way from hilarity to heartbreak. on one of his two albums, he wrote a melody for nancy short, who died a year ago. >> i dedicated it to my friend marty short's -- sorry. i'll play it for you. ♪

>> reporter: it's called "the great remember." and steve martin has proved every doubter wrong. believe it or not, just last week, he won the biggest award in bluegrass. he and the band named entertainers of the year. >> and our 2011 entertainer of the year is, steve martin. >> the greatest thing. the bluegrass community can be very strict. i felt really welcome. >> reporter: played at the capitol for one of the biggest audiences ever for bluegrass. >> to think that i played banjo for the president of the united states has to be one of the greatest thrills of his life. >> reporter: and not so very long ago, on the "letterman" show, the little boy from orange county got to stand right next to the king from the radio. ♪ bluegrass master earl scruggs.

and so we choose steve martin and the stone canyon band, and that two albums. you can learn more about them at abcnews.com and there's a present waiting for you there. he performed two songs just for us, and those performances are online. thank you so much for watching on this friday night. we are always online at abcnews.com. don't forget to watch "20/20" later tonight. david muir, as always, will be in this chair for the weekend. you can see him right here. and i'll see you back here on monday. until then, have a great weekend and a good night.